Jacksonville soccer coach Dave Miller didn’t get the second half he wanted from his Cardinals, but it didn’t matter.

The defending state 3-A champion Cardinals put forth a strong enough effort in the first half, particularly junior forward CJay Sparks, to defeat 4-A Hoggard 4-1 on Thursday night in a nonconference match.

Sparks scored all three of his goals in the opening half to lead Jacksonville to its third victory in as many games.

“CJay has a little size to go with his game and it’s helping,” said Miller, adding Sparks grew 6 inches during the offseason.

Sparks was one of the Cardinals’ key cogs last year en route to claiming their second state title in program history. Against Hoggard (3-1-1), he showed that again he could be one of Jacksonville’s go-to offensive players.

He said he now has five goals this season.

“My size has improved a lot,” Sparks said. “So I get to win more balls and hold people off better.”

Sparks scored a pair of goals in a 57-second span to give Jacksonville a 2-0 lead.

He first found the net just 7:53 into the match off an assist from junior Tyler Moore. Senior Ethan Osborn delivered a well-played ball down the field to Moore, who trapped it at the right corner before crossing it to an open Sparks for the goal.

“First goal of the season at home,” Sparks said. “Tyler just took a guy down the sideline and crossed it and I was able to finish it past the goalkeeper.”

It didn’t take long for Sparks to make it 2-0.

Less than a minute after his first goal, Sparks scored on a header after a shot by senior Warren Washington was blocked by the goalie.

And Sparks wasn’t done.

He gave the Cardinals a 3-0 cushion with 6:24 left in the first half off an assist from senior Dylan Elliot, who had delivered a crossing pass from the left side.

“We’ve been working together really well,” Sparks said. “We’ve had good team chemistry so far.”

But while Jacksonville was really never in danger of losing its lead, the Cardinals did seem to lose their edge in the second half. Their attack wasn’t as crisp as in the first half.

“I thought we had a much better first half than second half,” Miller said. “In the second half, we just couldn’t get in a groove or rhythm. Hoggard scored a goal, but we were able to go ahead and get a fourth one.”

The Vikings’ Dylan Morton scored with 28:29 left to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 3-1. Hoggard had a couple more chances to get close, but didn’t find the net again.

Page 2 of 2 - Senior goalkeeper Joe Davis made four saves for the Cardinals.

Jacksonville put the game away with 17:35 left when junior Zach Hall scored off an assist from Washington to make it 4-1.

This is a good win,” Miller said. “Overall I’m pretty pleased with the effort, but more so with the first half than anything else.”

And Miller is happy in general with the Cardinals’ play in their first few games.

“I think we are playing well, but there are still some things we need to work on,” he said. “We kind of lose focus a little bit and we need to still maintain our shape in the middle and work on the little things. But our team speed is good and our defense has been doing real good. Overall, I’m pleased with where we are at.”